Setbacks with New Goals

The yard sale went very well!  I made $250 and got rid of most of my stuff!  It felt so good to unload and clear out so much of the clutter in my basement.  In due time, too, because Hurricane Isaias came through and flooded a large part of my basement.  If I had all that stuff in there, it would have been an overwhelming, exhausting, messy problem.  

The kitchen is on hold a little longer.  My husband's chronic illness flared up and he spent a week at home in bed.  I didn't want to aggravate any stress or discomfort with paint smells and noise.  Instead, I worked on gathering and organizing our homeschool for the year, and I watched many episodes of The Minimal Mom on YouTube, which segues to:

The Minimal Mom has a lot of great advice concerning decluttering and minimizing.  One spot I always have difficulties with is clothing.  Her wardrobe videos really helped me get into a mindset to be ok with a smaller wardrobe and a more realistic, workable one.  I have an irrational fear of "not having it" if I need whatever "it" is.  One example is I was holding onto a suit jacket for 20 years in case I ever got an office job.  Well, of course, I've never gotten an office job, and after 20 years the suit jacket is likely not going to fit very well or not be a current style trend.  I also have other, more recent items I could wear if I ever did get an office job, which is now quite unlikely since I run our family business, now.

My current reality is that I need simple, practical, and functional clothing throughout the week.  I do manual labor work, housework, and I'll be homeschooling.  Gone are my days of playing 1950's housewife and having an entire day to grocery shop at my leisure in heels and pearls and vintage dresses.  Even our "going out" consists of errands and job estimates.  So, I dress more nicely, but in more modern fashion, and in clothes that are conducive to trudging around property in all sorts of weather as we look at trees. 

I also now attend a Catholic Church, and there actually is a difference in dress than most Protestant churches.  It is generally more modest than evangelical churches.  So, my sleeveless dresses, dresses that show my knees, and dresses with necklines that skim my cleavage line are no-nos.  Also, bold colors or prints are buh-bye.  I'm opting for more modest, classic, subdued garments.  The Catholic Church Mass is not a social event like many Evangelical churches.  You don't go to visit, chatter, or to see and be seen.  You go to worship Christ and not draw attention to yourself.  As soon as you enter, it is quiet reverence and prayer.  All eyes, all focus on our Lord and Savior.  It is immodest for someone to dress in a way to draw attention to themselves, either with loud clothing, or skin/figure-revealing clothing. 

The cold weather lasts far longer than the warm where I live.  It's going to be more of a challenge to reduce my winter wardrobe as I do like variety.  But, I also hate bulk.  Finding sweaters I like on me is a challenge.  I think I'll wait until we get a blast of chilly air.  It's hard to make decisions on cold weather clothing when it is 88 degrees outside.